Pittsburgh Pirates: How’s the 2019 Draft Class Performing?

The Major League Baseball Draft ended over a month ago.  How are the Pittsburgh Pirates top draft picks performing so far?

The Pittsburgh Pirates might have had one of their best drafts in a while.  The team signed all of their top picks as well as many high upside prep players they took later in the draft.  With that being said, the Bucs added a lot of talent to their organization through this year’s draft.

The signing deadline was this past Friday, and so now the 2019 draft is officially over.  However, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed many of their draft picks relatively quick.  The team’s first-round pick, Quinn Priester, signed before the draft was even over.  Due to the prospects signing quickly, the team has been able to get them into game action already.  So how have the new prospects done so far?

*Updated at 1:30 to include Quinn Priester’s five inning, seven strikeout, zero runs allowed start*

Quinn Priester, the 18th overall pick, has been pitching in the Gulf Coast League.  So far he has made three starts and has done well in all three, pitching to 1.59 ERA with 14 strikeouts and three walks in 11.1 innings.

The next pick was the 37th overall pick, which fell during the Competitive Balance A round.  The team took prep outfielder Sammy Siani.  Siani was committed to Duke but decided to join the Pittsburgh Pirates organization instead, and like Priester, he is also playing in the Gulf Coast League.  So far he has played in 11 games, with eight being in centerfield and three in left field.  He is having a somewhat mixed start.  Siani is hitting just .211 but is getting on base at a strong .388 clip.  He has worked 10 walks in his 11 games, but the biggest issue has been how much he has swung and missed.  Siani has already struck out 19 times.

With their final two picks on the first day of the draft, the Bucs went to the college ranks.  They took outfielder Matt Gorksi (second round) and third baseman Jared Triolo (Competitive Balance B).  Both are playing at Short-Season A West Virginia with the Black Bears.  Gorski is off to a tough start, batting just .191 and has struck out 18 times in 17 games.  Though, does have a home run and four doubles.  Triolo has had a little better start batting .224 with two home runs and 16 RBIs in 20 games.

Typically just drafted pitchers have more success than hitters and that seems to be the case here as well.  The issue is that all the hitters are going from using BBCOR bats and are changing to wooden bats.  Anyone who has played baseball and swung each type of bat knows there is a difference.  Many hitting prospects, especially from the college ranks, have admitted that it takes them a bit to get used to wooden bats.

Still, the good news is that the Pittsburgh Pirates top pick in Quinn Priester is already pitching like a top pick.  He likely will continue to only throw around 3-4 innings a game for the rest of this year.  Meanwhile, Gorski and Triolo are struggling thus far, but have shown good power already, which was the expectation.  Hopefully, they all have a strong end in their first professional season.